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  #31  
Old 12-11-2009, 05:28 PM
Coke_zero Coke_zero is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dekutree64 View Post
Holy cow, that sounds like something out of an action movie. What a waste of beautiful wood, good tools, and everything. I hope those thieves are stewing in jail, or will be soon.

But I'm glad to hear you're not giving up. Maybe you should name your new guitar "Phoenix"
Bonus points if you give it a red/orange theme. Like a redwood top, and bloodwood, cocobolo, or maybe koa back/sides.

I feel really bad for your buddy though. Is he going to rebuild the shop? If so, you oughtta give him a hand. Nothing beats a friend when dealing with the aftermath of something like that. Plus then you're pretty much guaranteed use of your corner again
Now I'm really loving that Pheonix theme idea. Maybe not for this build but if I get better at building I will give that one a go for sure.

In regards to the shop, not taking into account my equipment, there was about £15000 (about $24000) worth of high value powertools/machines inside and at least £2000 ($3100) of the owners materials for his business.

He is fully insured and will get it all back. His insurance will cover it being rebuilt also, however finding someone who will take the job on just before Christmas is quite hard. I think the guy is going to leave it until February at the earliest and have a two month break.

I guess now I will be learning to build the old fashioned way. An upside is that my wood supplier (who is also the owners for his own wood working project) has offered to thickness my woods for me to within +1mm, saving me a pretty long job. All I need to do is sand it down.

Last edited by Coke_zero; 12-11-2009 at 06:57 PM.
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  #32  
Old 12-12-2009, 08:38 AM
SCGib68 SCGib68 is offline
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That's a nice gesture by the wood supplier. My first I thicknessed the
top/back/sides with a block plane and scrapers. It did take longer, but it was a process that I enjoyed working on. The cedar top ended up a little thinner than I wanted by about .005 - .008 but shouldn't be a problem. Now thinning the rosette was another story...ugh! For some reason I spent about 3 hours forgetting I had scrapers sitting on the shelf in front of me. Using a plane on thin binding material can cause significant tear out and force a re-route with a high scrap loss! Once I remembered to look up at my scrapers, I finished the rosette in 10 minutes...DOH!
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  #33  
Old 12-12-2009, 09:17 AM
Fliss Fliss is offline
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Wow, CZ, I just read your post about what happened to the workshop! So sorry to hear that news. I'm very glad to hear that you are still going to persevere with your build.

Fliss
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  #34  
Old 12-12-2009, 06:53 PM
Coke_zero Coke_zero is offline
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The only issue is now, my budget has now effectively doubled and that doesn't take into account any replacement woods for possible mistakes to be made.
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  #35  
Old 12-14-2009, 07:12 PM
Coke_zero Coke_zero is offline
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New woods will arrive tomorrow I hope, time to get back to work.
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  #36  
Old 12-14-2009, 07:45 PM
Alpione Alpione is offline
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Looking forward to seeing how it goes. Good luck!

Adam
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  #37  
Old 12-23-2009, 02:30 PM
Coke_zero Coke_zero is offline
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Well I have changed my plans and I am now making a parlour guitar. Not really sure why but I just really like parlours, but could never warrant buying one as it wouldn't get played as much as I would like.

The top is cut to a rough shape, the braces are being carved. I hope to cut the soundhole and get the rosette done after Christmas. I have some ebony purfling to go with the spalted mapled I am using for the rosette. I'm not going to go too fancy on my first guitar as things never are as easy as it looks.

The only issue is I will have to make a new mould. Not too difficult but it is pretty time consuming. I will keep the 000 mould for a future build (if this one goes well).

I would love to put some pictures up but to be honest there isn't much to show yet.

Last edited by Coke_zero; 01-30-2010 at 02:55 PM.
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  #38  
Old 12-23-2009, 02:32 PM
Fliss Fliss is offline
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Wow, CZ, you know that's my favourite guitar body shape How about showing us some pictures of the wood?

Fliss
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  #39  
Old 12-26-2009, 07:07 AM
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Kitchen Guitars Kitchen Guitars is offline
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Man, I just hopped on this post. Yikes. Keep going!!!!!!!!
Hey, I have a feeling my first build is going to sound about the same as yours
Sorry for yours and your friends losses.
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  #40  
Old 12-26-2009, 04:22 PM
Coke_zero Coke_zero is offline
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Okay back from the worst Christmas ever, had a stomach bug, broke up with my girlfriend and was hit by a drink driver on the way home (thank god the year is almost over).

Before I start, Fliss if I could make a guitar to 1/10th of the quality of your yew tree backed guitar I would be happy.

Well I decided to start my rosette today. Measure twice cut once my dad always used to say. So I measured 4 times to be double as sure. Made the first cut all went perfectly. mademy second cut and my router bit snapped and totally tore out my spalted maple beyond repair.

Not all is lost, I cout the soundhole out of the guitar which went perfectly and I rough cut the back to shape. Both the back and top are at least 10mm from their final sizes still.

Now my only issue is remaking a mould, it took quite a while last time but I'll have to do it. I will go to my local timber yard tomorrow and get some more ply.

Heres a picture. Don't forget neither are fine cut or sanded as of yet.


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  #41  
Old 01-28-2010, 12:47 PM
Coke_zero Coke_zero is offline
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Been a while had a few issues with my last top and kind of lost interest for a while. I had a few days off work (which is rare at the moment) and thought I'll have another go while I could.

I made a neck blank. I thought I would go for a 5 piece laminated neck which I feel looks okay and is pretty solid.

Mahogany/maple/rosewood/maple/mahogany:


I have also finished my rosette. Took me a LONG time to get it right & to make sure it was in as tight as possible. It isn't finished yet, I still need to clean it up.

It is spalted maple with ebony binding. Quite striking looking. Maybe not for everybody but I quite like it.

Just installed & rough planed:


Almost there. Planed down barely flush with the soundboard. I will leave it like this so I can get a nice sanding of the whole top before bracing.

With a little water(needs a lot of cleaning up now):


It is taking a long time and is extremely frustrating. There have been times I want to smash everything into pieces, but when you get somewhere it is very rewarding.

By no means is this a McKnight or Mayes quality guitar (I wish ) but that's not really the point I guess.

A special thanks to woody who has helped out a lot with advice on this build.

Last edited by Coke_zero; 01-28-2010 at 01:06 PM.
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  #42  
Old 01-30-2010, 03:01 PM
Coke_zero Coke_zero is offline
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Not sure if anyone is viewing this or not but I like to keep it as a record of what I have done so far.

I cut out my top very roughly today by hand and finish sanding my rosette with my ransom orbital sander. Lesson for future builds: buy a half decent band saw. I also cut out my soundhole. It is approximately 90mm or about 3 1/2".



As you can see, the rosette split when putting it in on the top. So I spun it 180 degrees so the split will be covered up by the fretboard, so no issue there thankfully.


I plan on doing a rough pencil bracing pattern tonight. If anyone has a photograph of a nice parlour x braced let me know.

Oh, one last thing. The stain on the top just above the rosette isn't dirt. It's blood. I slipped with a chisel and dripped blood for about 10 minutes before realising I was cut. It will sand out, or maybe a memento of the build?

Last edited by Coke_zero; 01-30-2010 at 06:58 PM.
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  #43  
Old 01-30-2010, 03:55 PM
Brackett Instruments Brackett Instruments is offline
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Leave the blood on it. It looks like it will be under the fingerboard anyway. You'll always know it's there.

For your bracing layout, I start with the location of the bridge. You can locate the bridge from the 12th fret location. I draw the bridge out on the inside of the top first. I also draw out the upper transverse brace. (some people call it an upper face brace) Locate the upper ends of the "X" where the are 1" or so from the upper transverse brace. On a guitar this size I'd locate the other ends by barely catching the corners of the bridge. I'd use one tone bar on a guitar this small.
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  #44  
Old 01-30-2010, 04:56 PM
Coke_zero Coke_zero is offline
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EDIT: Woody, I posted this before reading your PM, so I will take that into consideration before redoing the plan.


Okay, I gave it a rough go.

I used the plans I have for an OM sized guitar with the advice you gave Woody regarding the size of the instrument.



I still feel it may be over braced for it's size. I've Googled all night for images of the bracing of a parlour guitar but can only find ones almost a century old .

If you are wondering why there are dents in the top, well blame the family who put it on the floor when looking for something they misplaced, in came the dog with his claws... No real worry as I have some sanding to do anyway. They aren't as deep as the photo makes them out to be, I took the picture in a poorly lit room and the photo is dark. I plan on getting a final design, tracing it to keep.

Last edited by Coke_zero; 01-30-2010 at 05:13 PM.
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  #45  
Old 01-30-2010, 07:07 PM
Coke_zero Coke_zero is offline
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Okay revised bracing. I won't get much else done with the top for a while until some new tools and supplies arrive from the US. Until then, I have to get to work on a new mould and hopefully get the sides bent. I also have to re-glue my back as it wasn't as good as I wanted it to be and needs a little more time on the shooting board.

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